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Comment by josscrowcroft | Hacker News Reader

So, although I found the article a little bit light, I'm fascinated to hear anybody's experience of Amsterdam for solo entrepreneurs and creatives. I've been considering it as a place to live, work and play for a while.

E.g. what are the pros/cons of moving there for 3–6 months, assuming there are no plans to raise funding, hire staff or rent an office?

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Dutchman here. Depends on where your from. Trying to find an affordable place to live can be difficult. (Depending on what you feel is affordable). On the other hand, distance is nothing in Holland. You drive through the entire country in 3 hours. An affordable place to live just 30 min outside Amsterdam is a lot easier. Public transport is good, most of the time. Driving and parking in A'dam is expensive as well... Most people just drive a bike (not a motorbike). There's a ton of info over at http://appsterdam.rs/

Can you give a ballpark on rent figures?

Also on average 'take home pay' for jobs

Here's an overview with pictures and prices. Remember it's cheaper 30 min outslide of the city. http://www.funda.nl/huur/amsterdam/sorteer-huurprijs-op/p8/

Edit: What kind of jobs exactly?

Thanks for the link

This prices are not expensive

Ok, let me be more specific

- Sw developer makes how much, and that's how much after taxes?

- Senior Sw/Tech lead makes how much, takes how much home?

For reference, here's Dublin:

- Sw dev jobs pay around 3k to 5k per month, taking home btw 2k and 3k for that interval

- A small flat, city center, 1 bedroom can go between 600 to 900, if you go a little further you can have a better price per bedroom. (even get a house for 1400 in some locations)

If you take into account the 30% expat tax discount (which you should make sure you get at all costs) then here it's about 4 to 6k per month with take home of between 3k and 4.5k and a similar 1 bedroom apartment would be around 900 to 1200.

Here are a few jobs like that in Amsterdam: http://www.itjobboard.nl/IT-Jobs/Software%20Developer/Amster...

moving from dublin to amsterdam the housing is a nightmare in general. But once you get the ring of it, you will be okay. There is more freelance opportunities but you need dutch working with the tax system.

It a relaxed transient culture in amsterdam and it takes time to break into circles.

And in general the weather is better than ireland.

Very true: "but you need dutch working with the tax system." Hell, even I have help with the tax-system. A small tip regarding housing: Visit the neighbourhood of choice after/around eight o'clock to get a feel of the streets.

Weather is shit almost the entire time.

There are more shops selling weed than daily staples like bread and milk.

The rent and the taxes are both very high.

> Weather is shit almost the entire time.

I'll give you that one.

> There are more shops selling weed than daily staples like bread and milk.

In case you're not trolling; it seems like you're describing Amsterdam's inner city center which is mostly just a large tourist attraction.

Go a bit further out and a coffee shop will be a relatively rare sight and there will be an Albert Heijn on every corner.

> The rent and the taxes are both very high.

We have quite a generous 30% tax deduction for expats. It makes our tax rates quite competitive.

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